The United States Grand Prix is widely seen as the last big opportunity to launch a final series of single-seater developments this season. Austin is the starting point for a “triple header” that also includes Mexico and Brazil, making it logistically the easiest place to introduce new parts.
Next came another hat-trick with Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to round off an eventful season. Some teams may bring new low-downforce parts to Las Vegas, although they are expected to reuse their wing specifications from Monza and especially Baku. In Qatar, it will be too late to get a significant return on investment unless teams choose to test parts for 2025.
So whatever the teams have had in their production line over the past month will now start to emerge as they make one last push to improve their lot. Austin is a sprint weekend, which gives the teams less testing time to sort out developments, but they have become accustomed to the format, so their reluctance to introduce new things in such a setting is no longer as big as it was before.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari SF-24).
Photo de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“We all know that we have already started the development of next year’s car and we are trying to do our best to make small changes”declared Fred Vasseur, boss of Ferrari. “I think it will probably be the last one for everyone. It will be true for us, but also for the other teams. And now that it’s so close, over the last four, five, six races, if we look at the grid, it can get even tighter and every little piece can make a difference.”
“It’s natural that all teams bring something to Austin”added Christian Horner, boss of the Red Bull team. “Ferrari has something important. I think Mercedes and McLaren will all bring something.”
At the top of the World Constructors’ Championship, McLaren leads by 41 points and looks set to maintain its advantage until the end of the year, if the performance gap with Red Bull during the last races. But the Austrian team showed that it had finally understood where it had gone wrong in the development of its RB20.
Sure, Max Verstappen finished 21 seconds behind Lando Norris in Singapore, but he still took second place on one of the worst circuits for Red Bull. The smooth layout of COTA could provide a better answer to the question of whether the reigning world champion team really took the right turn.
Max Verstappen (Red Bull RB20).
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
This is the second reason why Austin Weekend is so important. It heralds a return to more traditional circuits with high-speed changes of direction, which contrasts with the latest set of low-downforce tracks (Monza and Baku) and a low-speed but maximum downforce street circuit (Singapore).
Austin will therefore offer a clearer picture of what the grid could look like until the end of the year, with only the Las Vegas Grand Prix, in November, being closer to Baku in its nature.
“What we are looking to do is build on the knowledge we have and bring a car that is well balanced between its two axles, which inspires confidence in the driver”Horner said. “It’s a very different challenge. The first sector is very fast. They’ve also redone part of the circuit, so there’s another variable that comes into play. It’s a sprint weekend, so you have to be very fast. But the whole team has worked incredibly hard to understand the issues, resolve them and hopefully get solutions on the car for Austin.”
While all the attention has been on the battle between McLaren and Red Bull, Ferrari may still find itself in the fight, just 34 points behind the Austrian team. But the Scuderia may be the team arriving with the most question marks this weekend, as they have struggled with high-speed rebounds since the summer.
Maranello’s solutions to this problem have not proven themselves on the atypical circuits of Monza, Baku and Singapore. Austin will therefore be the litmus test of whether Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have the tools necessary to be competitive on the demanding configuration of the Circuit of the Americas.
Lando Norris (McLaren MCL38).
Photo de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“We are seeing the numbers we expected with these new parts on the car, but we don’t yet have the definitive answer on how close we got to McLaren or Red Bull on a normal track”said Leclerc. “I’m sure we’ve taken a step forward. How much? I think we’ll see it in Austin.”
Sainz, too, remains cautious until he sees Ferrari’s latest specification running on “normal tracks”, but he believes Las Vegas will be the best place for Ferrari to score another victory this year.
“I think every team has more or less an evolution in the works that they’re going to try before the end of the year, so we might still see some variation in performance.”declared the Spaniard. “At the same time, we have seen this year that developments are not always synonymous with performance.”
“They don’t always translate into lap times. It’s happened to us and other teams, Red Bull, Mercedes, except McLaren. What we need to see is if it makes a difference in Austin and Brazil, all the normal old school circuits, basically. And then Las Vegas, I think is our next big chance.”
